The present invention relates to digital communications. More specifically, the present invention relates to network management.
Today, large numbers of personal computers and workstations are being interconnected with file servers, print servers, modems, hubs and other devices to form local area networks, metropolitan area networks and wide area networks. These networks allow the personal computers and workstations to share information and valuable resources among each other. Now more than ever, individuals and companies depend on networks to conduct business and to communicate with people around the world. Indeed, the network has become the computer.
Most networks use a network manager and some form of Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) for managing the network. Among its management tasks, the network manager automatically monitors the status of the devices on the network. The network manager sends predefined event requests to the devices, which are requested to return responses when certain events occur. For example, a disk agent might be requested to send a response if available disk space falls below 50%. There are times when an event request might not define important events for a device, especially when the device is manufactured by more than one vendor. An SNMP-manageable device stores in its memory a Management Information Base (MIB), a collection of objects or variables representing different aspects of the device (e.g., configuration, statistics, status, control). For each class of device, the MIB has a core of standard variables. Each vendor of a device will add to the core, variables that it feels are important to the management of its device. Thus, the MIB for a router from a first vendor might be different from the MIB for a router from a second vendor, and an event request that defines important events for the one router might not necessarily define the same important events for the other router. This is a problem with network managers.
Another problem is that current network managers do not easily allow the health of the devices to be defined. The health is "hard-wired" into the event requests. Yet the desired definition of a healthy device or system might not concur with the predefined definitions. For example, a router could have five devices attached, two of which are redundant. Even if one of the redundant devices is bad, the router is still good. However, the network manager would indicate that the router is bad.